What has happened to high street fashion shops?

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

I never go shopping because I’m rubbish at knowing what suits me or what’s in fashion and didn’t have money to buy clothes for years so just got out of the habit of clothes shopping, so I just wear the same old outfits and footwear till they literally wear out then reluctantly go and buy something else.

Just been to my local retail park and there is a Next, H & M, New Look, small versions of River Island, Dorothy Perkins, Miss Selfridge and Top Shop, a Laura Ashley. There used to be An M and S but it’s just closed down.

I went in all of them except Laura Ashley and was shocked at what poor quality everything is for the money they’re charging. Everything seems to be Primark quality cheap prints on very thin material. Hardly any of the shoes and bags were leather. All plasticky cheap looking crap that wasn’t actually cheap!!

WTF has happened? Luckily I am in a city and have a ready good range of shops in the city centre (John Lewis, Debenhams plus loads of designer shops) but it seems I’m going to have to suck up the prices in shops which I previously classed as “too high end” simply to get the quality of stuff which used to be in most of the lower priced high street fashion shops 20 years ago.

Is it just me, am I expecting too much? I just don’t want to pay 50 quid for an ordinary looking pair of shoes which aren’t leather.

No, not just you. Me and OH have been saying the same for a few years now. We very rarely buy anything new. Some of our clothes/shoes are 10-20 years old! Then they wonder why shop sales are down and shops are closing!

Yep, it definitely takes more work to find good things. I am slowly building up good quality basics. Most recent is a pair of black jeans which cost a little more (although actually only about £35, Weekday off asos) but I can tell already they are going to last a while. After a year of not having any spare cash, its kind of reset my thinking. I look at most high street stuff now and just think "blugh".

Totally agree. I need some new things and I’m struggling to find anything I’d actually buy.

You need to shop online. You can get reasonably priced items ( may be a little more expensive actually) but good quality. I like 1950s styles clothing so my go to places are: lady v, pretty kitty, top vintage.

Yup I went into h&m last week to grab a couple of cheap tops for work. Heir clothes are tiny so I took a 14 and a 16. The arms on the 16 were so tight yet the 14 fitted fine! Brilliant way to give people a complex about their weight! I wasn't going to bother trying the 15 but going by past experience in h&m and their dodgy sizing I thought would give it a shot.

I'm guessing you're right - I don't think I've been into a clothes shop in a retail park for at least a decade and a half - because the rot had already set in then.

I imagine retailers are pretty confident that anyone lacking the means or ability to shop online (particularly for mass produced items that don't require much personal fitting) will buy any old rubbish that's put in front of them. There's absolutely no reason for them to take any pride in what they offer.

I like the quality of Cos and Arket. Higher ££ than shops such as Dorothy Perkins and Next though.

Yes, I agree. I hate shopping online, having to wait for deliveries, finding things don't fit or look totally different to how you expected, having to send them back and wait for the money to be refunded. Going to shops is so much easier but its getting harder and harder to find quality at a reasonable price.

It's fast fashion. Lower quality but on the shelves quickly to catch the trends. Very environmentally-unfriendly because some things are literally made to be worn once.

Agree that one has to go to more expensive shops to get decent quality now :-/

I read somewhere that back in the 80s a typical high street jumper cost £20 - £30. It still does, despite decades of inflation*. The price has stayed low because the costs of production have been slashed, through lower quality material and construction. Similar principle to the cost of a bar of chocolate starting the same while they make the bar smaller instead.

*Just checked with the Bank of England's inflation calculator. £25 in 1980 is equivalent to £105 now. Effectively, most people are paying far less for their clothes than they used to, and we wonder why the quality is crap.

Maybe you’re right about inflation, I guess the issue is that for many people, their salary has not increased in line with it.

Perhaps The answe is to buy less and pay more.

Not sure a high street jumper costs 20-30 quid these days though, unless you’re talking about the cheapest and thinnest acrylic with 3/4 sleeves.

Buying online would have suited me as a SAHM but I didn’t have the money then. I work full time now so I have the money but am never home to collect the stuff! And then the hassle of returns if it doesn’t fit.

I probably need to go shopping to fancy shops more and balk at the prices but buy it anyway!

QuaterMiss: where do you shop?

I’ve been reading a really fab book about clothing in WW2 (called Fashion on the Ration if anyone’s interested!) and one of the things that surprised me was how much more expensive clothes were back then - people had so few clothes compared to nowadays, even the well off, because items of clothing were so so much more. People now want loads of clothes cheaply, and therefore quality has to suffer.

Can you get parcels delivered to where you work or to a pick up point?

I live near a decent sized city but it's easier to find decent stuff online than traipse around shops for hours getting a head ache.

Uniqlo
Cos
Arket
Woolovers
Boden (in sale and not with a pattern)
Clarks/clarks outlet store for low price leather shoes

I was lucky enough to win some vouchers at Christmas. I had £20 to spend in 5 different shops. That was quite a treat for me as I don't usually go clothes shopping for me these days unless there's something I really need.
It was actually quite hard work to spend some of the vouchers. I had quite a lot of choice of stuff I liked in H&M, Primark and New Look. In Monsoon and Top Shop (my favourite from my teens) I really struggled. Overpriced in Monsoon and basically mostly completely hideous in Top Shop. I know I'm probably the wrong age group for Top Shop these days but boy, was a lot of that stuff ugly. 😂

Where?

Hmm ... I'm definitely in your buy less pay more category.

Ignoring the scruffy things I'm currently lounging in - if I had to nip into town this evening in ordinary-wear I'd probably put on:

a navy wool jacket by Gembalies bought pre-worn/second hand from Vestiare (online). Would have been impossibly expensive new.

a rather ancient cream linen Isabel Marant shirt, bought in a Harvey Nichols sale - actual concrete shop before my local HN became an embarrassing white elephant.

A pair of high waisted, wide legged jeans by Beaufille bought several seasons ago in the Alex Eagle sale online. (Massive discount.) Had to return for a smaller size but very easy and straightforward.

I do still occasionally wander around & Other Stories - where the styling is lovely but the quality poor - so I never buy anything. Cos doesn't seem to work for me anymore so I end up looking horrifically dowdy. I can sometimes be found wandering around Margaret Howell or Acne Studios, if I'm in London - though I'm more likely to buy their things online. But most of the places I buy from simply don't have physical shops in the U.K.

Yep, definitely feels like there's been a bit of a race to the bottom on the high street in the last couple of decades. People seem to have brought into the 'quantity over quality' that many shops are pedalling. Pretty clever. If it's all rubbish and falls apart, back we go. I mainly buy from charity shops, eBay and favoured £££ retailers in sales.

*bought into

I can get parcels delivered to work but still hate clothes shopping online, I've virtually never kept anything I've ordered. Far easier to go to the shops. I'd rather go once every few months and soend several hours shopping than go through the endless frustration of order, wait, try, return, refund.

I read somewhere that back in the 80s a typical high street jumper cost £20 - £30.
I've probably told this story before but I've still got a wool jumper I bought in John Lewis in the mid 80s for £39. I had to save up to buy it. I was working in a professional role but I mostly either bought my clothes second hand or made my own because it was the only way I could afford them. Thirty-odd years on and I've gone back to second hand and I'm looking at sewing machines. Draw your own conclusions.

Speaking of dressmaking - years ago I used to enjoy browsing the fabric departments of Laura Ashley, John Lewis and Liberty with my mother (who had a sewing machine and knew how to use it). And I remember how expensive dress fabrics were even then. So it's strange now to see clothes for sale whose price simply couldn't cover the cost of their fabric ...

This lady is very good about fast fashion and capsule wardrobes.

m.youtube.com/channel/UChxkFSjTE7nLCHsDk8_pRhg

I'd like to do it but I'm pregnant at the moment, and will have no idea what size size I'll be afterwards. Plus limted funds means it'll take me a long time to buy quality items. I went half way and konmari-ed most of my clothes, so all I've got is about 3 outfits and they've all lost a bit of the 'joy' that they once sparked

So so true! It seems to have become a race to the bottom unfortunately. I blame the likes of Primark (which I admit I have never set foot in on point of principle).

I do almost all my shopping online. Less is definitely more. I will pick up a few cheap pieces from Asos (I'm very partial to their fake PU 'leather' as I've had lots of compliments when I wear it) but do most other shopping in sales online. The only clothes I've bought by going in an actual physical shop in the last year were 1. selvedge jeans from a Black Horse Atelier pop-up in Shoreditch (I wanted to be able to try them on before buying) and 2. (i) a cashmere jumper dress and (ii) an aran wool cape (it weighs a ton but is so warm and looks fabulous) both from the Burberry factory outlet in Hackney.

I try to buy natural fabrics but OMG it's so hard these days. I was lighting some candles tonight and thought that if I get too close, I'll go up in flames as the manmade fabrics combust!